say on the seat of the soul, J.
B. van Helmont assures us that there is a stronger feeling in the upper
orifice of the stomach than in the eye itself, etc.; that the solar plexus
is the most essential organ of the soul. He recounts the following
experience. In order to make an experiment on poisonous herbs he made a
preparation of the root of aconite [Aconitum napellus] and only tasted it
with the tip of his tongue without swallowing any of it. "Immediately," he
says, "my skin seemed to be constricted as with a bandage, and soon after,
there occurred an extraordinary thing, the like of which I had never
experienced before. I noticed with astonishment that I felt, perceived and
thought no longer with my head, but in the region of my stomach, as if
knowledge had taken its seat in the stomach. Amazed at this unusual
phenomenon, I questioned myself and examined myself carefully. I merely
convinced myself that my power of perception was now much stronger and
more comprehensive. The spiritual clearness was coupled with great
pleasure. I did not sleep nor dream, I was still temperate and my health
perfect. I was at times in raptures, but they had nothing in common with
the fact of feeling with the stomach, which excluded all cooeperation with
the head. Meantime my joy was interrupted by the anxiety that this might
even bring on some derangement. Only my belief in God and my resignation
to his will soon destroyed this fear. This condition lasted two hours,
after which I had several attacks of giddiness. I have since often tried
to taste of aconite, but I could not get the same result." (Van Helmont,
Ortus Medic, p. 171, tr. Ennemoser, Gesch. d. Mag., p. 913.)

Note H (381). For the old as for the new royal art the material is man, as
man freed from all framework. "Not man of the conventional social life,
but man as the equally entitled and equally obligated being of divine
creation, enters the temple of humanity with the obligation always to
remain conscious of his duty and to put aside everything that comes up to
hinder the fulfillment of the highest duty." (R. Fischer.) Compare with
this what Hitchcock says of the material of the Philosopher's Stone:
"Although men are of diverse dispositions ... yet the alchemists insist
... that all the nations of men are of one blood, that is, of one nature;
and that character in man, by which he is one nature, it is the special
object of alchemy to bring into life and action, by means of whi